COLUMBUS – The No. 2-ranked Columbus State University Women's Soccer program will travel to Greenwood, S.C. on Wednesday night to face Lander (S.C.) in the rescheduled contest that was originally slated for Oct. 1.
Wednesday's match will be the 25th meeting between the Lady Cougars (13-0-1, 7-0-0 PBC) and the Bearcats (7-1-4, 2-1-3 PBC) with CSU holding a 20-2-2 overall record. During last season's meeting, CSU narrowly edged out Lander in a 1-0 win at the Walden Soccer Complex.
The Lady Cougars are coming off a 1-0 victory over North Georgia on Saturday while the Bearcats are coming off a 1-1 draw against Georgia Southwestern. Columbus State is set for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff on Wednesday from Van Taylor Stadium in Greenwood.
Lander is led by the offensive efforts of Angele Hills and Emma Sexton. Hills leads with 12 points on five goals and two assists while Sexton has bagged three goals and assisted two for eight points. As a team, the Bearcats have outscored opponents 22-8 and average 14.4 shots point per contest.
On the defensive end of things, LU has held opponents to an average of 6.4 shots per game. In goal, Leah Hayes Coen leads the way with 12 starts and over 1,000 minutes this season. Hayes Coen has tallied 35 saves and holds a 7-1-3 record.
As for Columbus State, they are led by
Emma Beddow,
Michelle Medina, and
Ui Suzuki with seven goals apiece followed by
Vanessa Aviles, and
Abigail Akerson with six goals each. Akerson lifted the Lady Cougars to the program's 15th PBC Regular Season Championship on Saturday with her goal against UNG with the help of
Faith Knoedler's third assist on the year.
CSU has nine student-athletes with double-digit points as well as 11 who have scored three or more goals this season. As a team CSU has bested opponents 66-7, averaging 24.4 shots per game for a 53.1% (181-of-341) shot on goal percentage. The Lady Cougars remain the top team in NCAA DII in goals per game (4.71), total points (173), total goals (66), shots on goal per game (12.9), and shots per game.
Defensively, Columbus State is 19th in the country in goal against average (50%) with just seven allowed. In goal, reigning PBC Goalkeeper of the Week
Heidi Harris leads CSU with nearly 1,100 minutes and 23 saves and a 13-0-1 record. Harris is also atop of the PBC with a 49.7% goal against average and fifth in the conference with a 79.3% save percentage. She also has tallied five shutouts this season in 14 matches played.
Columbus State and Lander will kick-off at 7 p.m. ET from Greenwood.
Live stats and
live video are available to follow along.
